The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Stats show increase in violent crimes
Property crimes however have decreased
A report from the FBI shows an increase in violent crime and a decrease in property crime across the country but Lorain and Elyria bucked the trend.
The FBI released its Crime in the United States 2015 report Sept. 26 without statistics from Lorain or Elyria.
Nationally, regionally and across Ohio, violent crime is increasing per 100,000 residents. In Ohio, the violent crime rate for 2015 was 291.9 per 100,000 residents. This was a 2.2 percent increase over 2014. The Midwest region saw a 3.9 percent increase, with 356.3 violent crimes per 100,000 residents in 2015. Violent crime saw a 3 percent increase from 2014 with 383.2 per 100,000 residents in 2015 nationally.
Conversely, property crime saw a decrease between the two year’s statistics. Ohio saw a 7 percent decrease with 2,587.7 property crimes per 100,000 residents in 2015. The Midwestern region decreased 4.8 percent with 2,272.4 property crimes per 100,000 residents. The United States saw a decrease of 0.4 percent with 2,487 property crimes per 100,000 residents in 2015.
The Lorain and Elyria police departments are still keeping track of these statistics.
Lorain, whose crime statistics are available at
lorainpolice.com/crimestatistics, maintained the same number of violent crimes, 246, between 2014 and 2015. There were no murders in 2015 and a decrease in robberies with 90; two less than the year before. These declines offset the slight increase from 115 felonious assaults in 2014 to 118 the following year.
Property crime showed a decrease of 9.6 percent between the two years. This reflects a drop in each property crime detailed in their report except for motor vehicle thefts which rose to 103 from the 83 reported in 2014. The overall number of property crimes committed in Lorain in 2015 is 2,383 compared to the previous year’s 2,638.
The total number of crimes described in the Lorain report for 2015 is 2,629. The previous year’s total was 2,884. This shows a drop of 8.8 percent drop in overall crime.
Lorain police did not immediately return a phone call for comment.
The Elyria police reported an increase in violent crime between the two years. In addition to the crimes used by the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting Program, the department also includes stats for simple assaults, which is the only category that showed an increase. There were 751 simple assaults in 2015, an increase of 39 from the previous year. The total number of violent crimes in Elyria for 2015 is 900, a 1.7 percent increase over the previous year’s 885.
Elyria showed a decrease in property crime between the two years, with a large drop in larceny/theft.
In 2014 Elyria had 1,403 reports of larceny/theft, this number dropped to 1,232 in 2015. This shows a decrease of 12.2 percent. The total number of property crimes for 2015 is 1,698, a 12.2 percent from the previous year’s 1,933.
The total number of reported crimes in Elyria for 2015 was 2,598 compared to 2014’s 2,818. This shows a 7.8 percent decrease between the two years.
Cap. Christopher Costantino attributes this decrease to the introduction of new crime fighting measures.
“We’re a strong agency and there’s an approach that I know I believe strongly, and I know the chief does also, which is intelligence based policing,” he said. “Focusing on people who are committing the crimes in areas where there’s crime and putting resources out to combat that. Whether that be extra patrol officers in certain areas or detectives, it’s a concept that works and we use that a lot.”
The federal report presents statistics on the number and frequency of crimes committed in an area. Those numbers are further broken down by region, state, county and city.
The statistics are divided by whether the crime committed was a violent one or whether it was property crime. Both of those categories are divided into subcategories detailing individual crimes. These crimes are: Murder and nonnegligent manslaughter, rape (revised definition), rape (legacy definition), robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny-theft and motor vehicle theft.
Vicki Anderson, special agent with the FBI’s Cleveland division, said that departments across the country are not required to report these statistics to the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting Program.
The total number of crimes described in the lorain report for 2015 is 2,629. The previous year’s total was 2,884. This shows a drop of 8.8 percent drop in overall crime.